Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 19 & 20: Taichung 台中 (N Joy Hostel, Taichung BRT, Dong Hai University 東海大學, Dong Hai Dairy 東海乳品小棧, Pisa Pizza, Gaomei Wetland 高美濕地)
The trip back to Taichung city from Chiayi (NTD 229) was without much hiccups. As I departed from the train station, I then immediately went on towards the new Taichung BRT station (which is unfortunately out of service now) and headed to my hostel. For my few nights in Taichung I chose to stay at N Joy Hostel which got really high ratings at Hostelworld and also due to it's great location which is just nearby the National Museum of Natural Science (科博館) BRT station.
 |
| N Joy Taichung |
At NTD 500 - 550 per night for the mixed dorm with 6-8 beds it was quite a decent place to stay. Only issue is that the mixed dorms are located on the higher floors and it's a bit tedious to climb those few stairs. There are a lot of toilets available so fighting for room to bath in the morning and night would not be an issue. Also there are many eateries around within walking distance, in which I had tried a few.
 |
| Mini map around the area |
  |
| Spaghetti for dinner |
For my dinner on my night of arrival I had Carbonara Spaghetti set which came with a soup and free red tea for NTD 129. Really quite reasonable but it is by no means a proper and comfortable restaurant.
 |
| Kitchen staff at work |
The next morning I woke up the sound of sizzling meat being grilled on the pan. Apparently the owners had prepared breakfast for all of us! Each of the guests get to have a set of burger with a mushroom soup. The burger was delicious. Pork patty, homemade passion fruit sauce as the dressing and an egg in between the buns to top it off. The cooks were none other than the volunteer staffs (made up mostly of Hongkies) who came to Taichung to work at the hostel in exchange of free accommodation, which is quite a popular trend all around Taiwan.
 |
| Amazing pork burger |
After the really satisfying breakfast I then started my exploration of Taichung. My first stop of the day would be Dong Hai University which is one of the more touristy sites in this city. Getting there was quite simple: just take the BRT right up to Dong Hai university stop.
The design of the BRT was pretty much like a LRT just that it is on the ground. However, as the bus has a very strict KPI to follow, the time that they allow passengers to alight the bus is very very limited. So it was quite an experience rushing and squeezing into the bus and can be quite scary at times. This was also probably due to the stretch of traffic lights along the route which has a 99 second timer. If the bus did not beat the traffic light in time then the whole journey would be delayed, technically. Also there was no automated announcements of the bus stops. For each stop, the bus attendant would then speak over the loud speaker to announce the stops lol. I was quite excited about the BRT at that time because Sunway was building their own BRT as well. Hence I got a first hand taste of what BRT is like.
 |
| Ticketing machines |
 |
| Full load |
The bus ride to Dong Hai University was about 15 minutes. The main attraction here was none other than the chapel which has now become a landmark for tourists visiting Taichung. Even newlyweds come here to take their wedding photos. The amazing weather certainly adds bonus points to the photographs that they are taking.
Essentially this is just another university, albeit one with a huge area. After strolling around and enjoying the view of the trees and buildings I was starting to get bored. I was only here for less than 1 hour and going somewhere else didn't really seem to fit in my itinerary.
I randomly asked my friends in a Whatsapp group chat on other things to do here and one of them suggested me to try their ice cream. It was then only I found out that this university has their own brand of dairy products. After randomly walking around and asking for directions, I finally found the original shop (they have mini branches in random corners around the university).
They do sell quite a bit of products, ranging from ice cream in a cup/stick, fresh cow's milk and yoghurt. I went for the ice cream stick since it was the cheapest option (NTD 22) hahaha. The ice cream was really milky but not too sweet.
Lunch: Personal Hawaii Chicken Pizza Set which comes with the pizza, one soft drink and a salad (NTD 159). Another restaurant just nearby N Joy Hostel.
I then headed back to my hostel to join in the group of volunteer staffs from Hong Kong to visit another popular site: Gao Mei wetlands (高美濕地). To get here we took a bus from the Science Museum bus stop right in front of the hostel. The journey to the place took about 40-60 minutes. I was lucky to get a seat on the bus otherwise it will be a rather painful journey. If you have no idea, wetlands (a mixture of sand and mud) are an important habitat for many animals from birds to fishes to invertebrates. Hence, the main attraction here would be bird sighting and it's also a fun thing to just take off your shoes and walk on the mud. This is also a great place to catch the sunset if the weather is good. If. A big if. Especially on winter.
As we got off the bus we could already feel the strong winds. True enough, when we were at the walkway leading out the wind was so strong that it almost blew us all away. Not exaggerating. This is the first time I am experiencing such strong winds. I could only imagine what it's like during an actual typhoon.
We had to lean ourselves forward to get the right balance. Somehow the birds were able to grip on the mud and not get blown away. Amazing. The people at the windmill generator nearby would probably be filled with tears of joy with such strong wind currents. The video below will illustrate what I mean exactly.
 |
| Birds finding food |
Nobody was in the mood to stay for long, let alone going down to walk on the mud in such strong winds haha. After we reached the end of the walkway we then headed back. Since the next bus was quite some time away, we all agreed to just grab a taxi and headed back to the town area to grab another bus back home to our hostel. It was quite a hilarious event as the first taxi driver only dropped us off at some random road. We had to hail another cab just to get back to town. This was also my first time taking a taxi after 20 days in Taiwan haha. Quite an achievement.
At the hostel we were greeted by the smell of freshly cooked dinner! The owner bought some food and the volunteer staffs cooked another egg dish for all of us who were at the hostel. It felt really nice to have free food after a rather disappointing trip. Some places are just not meant to be during winter haha.
 |
| Yummy dinner |
Previous: Day 19: Chiayi 嘉義 (Sunrise at Alishan 阿里山國家森林遊樂區, Fenqihu 奮起湖)
Comments